How
is Chocolate Made?
First,
the pods which contain the cacao bean are harvested. The beans
along with their surrounding pulp, are removed from the pods and
left to ferment for up to 7 days. The beans are quickly dried
to prevent the growth of mold. The most common way of drying
the beans is to leave them in the sun to dry naturally.
The
beans are then roasted and ground. The result is a liquid
known as chocolate liquor. The Cocoa butter is removed for
this liquor by a process known as the Broma process. Once the Cocoa
butter is removed, the residue is a powder known as Cocoa
powder. The Cocoa powder by itself is very bitter, so to
make chocolate the powder is blended with the cocoa butter and sugar
to make Chocolate. The quantity of Cocoa, cocoa butter and
sugar blended together is what gives you the different types of
chocolates known as Dark or Milk Chocolate. Most White
Chocolate does not contain any Cocoa Powder, but instead is a blend
of sugar, cocoa butter, milk and vanilla.
The
finest dark chocolate (covertures) contains at least 70% cocoa
(solid + butter) and milk chocolate contains up to 50%. Some
mass produced chocolate contains as low as 7% cocoa and other fats
replace the natural cocoa butter.
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Theobroma is Greek for 'food of the gods'. The ancient Aztecs
venerated the cacao tree and used its beans as a form of currency.
They saw the tree as a source of strength and wealth and assigned
their god Quetzalcoatl its guardian.